


One step closer (we're gonna be alright)

by Elisexyz



Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drinking, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Episode: s07e16 Goodbye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 12:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14593389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “Are you seriously coming here, telling me that you don’t know if you should go or stay, and expect me to doanythingbut trying to bribe you into staying?”





	One step closer (we're gonna be alright)

**Author's Note:**

> Mike didn't go anywhere, what are you even talking about. Ssssh. (for more denial, you can find me on Tumblr as [heytheredeann](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com))  
>  This may be _technically_ Gen, but if you want to read it as Marvey (unrequited or with Mike still in denial)... I'm not gonna stop you.

“I didn’t think this through,” Mike announces, stepping into his apartment without even waiting for permission. Harvey automatically steps aside, partially because his thoughts are more than a bit slowed down by the alcohol that he had started drowning himself in, partially because he’s caught by surprise.

“What are you talking about?” he manages to ask, slowly closing the door and trying to look closer to sober than he is. Not that he’s completely wasted – _yet;_ had Mike arrived half an hour later he probably would have been pretty much useless –, but that’s Mike’s ‘I’m freaking out’ voice, so he needs to be steady and reassuring and fix it, because that’s what he does, especially for Mike.

“That— that damn _job_ ,” Mike explains, dropping on the couch. There’s a part of Harvey that is enjoying the familiarity of this as much as the rest of him is _loathing_ it, unable to set aside the knowledge that he’ll lose it in less than twenty-four hours. Except—

“What?” he frowns, uncertain that he heard him right. He approaches the couch, ending up standing not far from Mike.

“There are all the suitcases ready, and Rachel is very enthusiastic about it all, looking up apartments and everything and— it’s a completely different _life_ ,” Mike rants, looking up to him as if he was expecting Harvey to drop some magic solution on him any second. “It’s a new apartment, a new firm, new colleagues, new _city_ — I’ve been in New York my whole life, all my family is here and how exactly did I think that throwing everything away on a moment’s notice was smart?”

Harvey snorts, dropping on the couch as well. “Been wondering the same thing, to be honest.”

It’s only when Mike looks at him with a mix of anger and hurt that Harvey registers that his comment was anything but helpful. Right, right. Brain-mouth filter, that’s a thing that he should probably use right now.

“Sorry,” he amends, raising his hands in surrender. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“I have no idea, that’s why I’m _here_ ,” Mike stresses, gesturing to him so erratically that he looks like he’s having a stroke. Harvey wonders if he is actually the one who has been drinking between the two of them.

“Oh, so you want me to tell you what to do?”

“Yes!” He pauses. “No. I want _advice_ ,” Mike corrects.

Harvey lets out a laugh. “Are you seriously coming here, telling me that you don’t know if you should go or stay, and expect me to do _anything_ but trying to bribe you into staying?”

That makes Mike go silent for a moment too long, and Harvey is one step away from hitting himself in the head. _Brain-mouth filter. Use it, for god’s sake_.

“I was thinking something more along the lines of ‘make a list of pros and cons, Mike’,” Mike finally sighs, resting his elbows on his thighs and leaning forward to rub his face with both hands. 

“I’m pretty sure you’ve already done that,” Harvey replies. He’s also pretty sure that the pros part is running a little low, or he wouldn’t be panicking on his couch right now. Harvey kind of likes it when Mike comes panicking on his couch, because it means that he can do something about it and that Mike is trusting him with his problems. It’s nice.

“I did,” Mike confirms, the sound coming muffled from behind his hands. “What the hell was I thinking when I said yes?”

“To Seattle or to the marriage?” Harvey snorts.

_…Shit_.

Mike turns towards him, eyes wide in surprise at the remark.

“I’ve been drinking a little,” Harvey decides to confess, pointing at the opened bottle on the table and the empty glass. Mike probably didn’t notice, busy as he was freaking out.

“Good, so I’m getting advice from a drunk guy,” Mike comments, shaking his head with a slight amused grin on his face.

“Drunk or not, right now I’m keeping my shit together better than you,” he replies, lightly.

“Point taken,” Mike mumbles, going back to rubbing his face and looking like he’s having the worst day of his life. Harvey should probably welcome him to the club: he’s turning his whole life upside-down, Harvey is about to go and say goodbye to his best friend at a damn airport after like a second to get used to the idea— everything pretty much sucks.

Unless Mike is not going. Harvey doesn’t even have the decency to feel guilty for sitting there and hoping that this identity crisis will lead to Mike deciding that what he actually needs is staying there with him.

“Rachel is gonna kill me,” Mike sighs, turning towards him with pleading eyes. Harvey doesn’t know what exactly he’s asking for, and he hates it.

“I volunteer to be your human shield,” he ends up saying, and that at least makes Mike crack a smile.

“Of course you do,” he chuckles, shaking his head. He reaches for the bottle and the glass, filling it up and drinking half of it in one sip. Harvey is tempted to point out that it’s unsanitary to drink from other people’s glasses, but then he’d have to stand up and go get him another one, and frankly he doesn’t want to move a single step away from where he is right now, with Mike’s knee touching his and his shoulder inches away from Harvey’s.

“It was stupid to say yes in the first place,” Mike acknowledges, slowly, his eyes fixed on the glass that he’s playing with on his lap. “The job is tempting, but— I’d need more time to think about such a big change. I’m an idiot.”

“You are a genius,” Harvey automatically corrects. “Who almost did something very dumb, but still.”

“Drunk you is a sweet bastard,” Mike grins, glancing at him with so much affection that it makes Harvey’s stomach leap.

“Sober me thinks it too, because it’s the truth,” he points out.

“Sober me is very sorry dumping that bombshell on you without any warning,” Mike replies, quietly, deliberately looking away and stretching his fingers nervously. “I hope you’ll take me back anyway?”

Harvey snorts, because the answer is ridiculously obvious. “Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> ~~the land of denial is such a nice place to live in guys~~


End file.
